Becker College seeks to renovate 100-year-old house

Tuesday

Feb 12, 2013 at 11:04 AM

By Nick Kotsopoulos TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Becker College is looking to renovate the one-time home of former local industrial magnate John Woodman Higgins for re-use as an education facility, to include additional classroom space for its nationally-recognized video game design program.

But the Historical Commission has asked for more information from the college about its proposal to replace many of the windows in the 2 1/2-story, 100-year-old home with ones that are more energy-efficient.

In particular, the commission wants an analysis of the cost to repair the windows compared to replacing them.

It has asked for that information for its next meeting on March 7.

To be able to proceed with the project, Becker has to obtain from the Historical Commission a waiver to the city's demolition delay ordinance.

Because the home is listed on the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System, it falls under the purview of the demolition delay ordinance, which puts a 12-month hold on the demolition of historic structures to allow time to explore alternative uses.

The replacement of windows is one of the many provisions included in the demolition delay ordinance. Without the waiver, Becker would not be able to proceed with the project to at least another year.

The home, located at 80 William St., was built around 1912 and has been owned by Becker since 2011. It is also registered in the National Register of Historic Places as a National Register District and National Register Multiple Resource Area.

The property includes a 9,147-square-foot main home, which has 17 total rooms, as well as a 1,640-square-foot detached carriage house.

Becker wants to reuse the first floor of the main home as a place where seminars and conferences can be held by students, faculty and administration, according to William J. Maisello, the project architect.

He said the second floor would be renovated into video gaming design pods for no more than 15 students, along with support staff.

Meanwhile, the carriage house would be converted into two computer labs/classrooms.

To connect the carriage house with the main house, Mr. Maisello said an addition will be built between the two that complements the existing stucco clad terra cotta masonry.

He said the addition will allow for accessibility -- it will house an elevator for the building -- and ease of use by students and guests.

He said Becker intends to maintain the architectural integrity of the home throughout. He said one of the major items, though, will be the replacement of most of the windows in the building with more energy-efficient ones that match the style and profile of what is already there.

Many of the windows now in place have non-tempered, single-pane glass that is not insulated and are in fair condition at best.

“The goal of the project is to enhance the learning experience for our students,” Ken Cameron, assistant vice president of administration, told the Historical Commission last week. “We have a nationally recognized gaming program and we want to be able to provide those students with additional space where they can really pursue their hopes and dreams.

“At the same time, we are working to try to make all of our buildings more energy efficient,” he added. “This is a huge building for us; it's a big building. We would like to make it as energy efficient as possible and that's the reason why we would like to go with replacement windows.”

As it has done with many other previous requests for replacement window involving historic properties, the Historical Commission wants consideration also given to repairing as many of the existing windows as possible instead of replacing all of them.

“Whenever somebody looks to replace any original windows, we also like them to look at whether they can be repaired,” said Commission Chairman Timothy McCann. “We like to see if any of the original windows can be saved. Before we can look at an economic hardship (to repairing the windows), we need some hard numbers, though.”

Commissioner James Crowley said the commission has learned through past experience that through the use of technology old windows can be made fairly close energy-efficient wise to newer ones.

“The current windows clearly have architectural and historical value,” Mr. Crowley said. “So if we are going to consider economic hardship to allow for the replacement of these windows, we need a fairly detailed analysis of what the cost would be to repair them compared to the replacement cost.”

Commissioner Kevin Provencher said the commission's request is nothing out of the ordinary.

“We certainly understand the intent of what (Becker) is trying to do,” he said. “We see this type of application all the time and we have the same discussion every time. For the sake of consistency and fairness to all of those applicants who have come before us in the past, we have to have a detailed cost analysis. For us to make a good decision, we would feel more comfortable seeing that data.”